Bill King says immigrants who become American citizens show more appreciation for their status than many who were born here.

By Bill King |
November 21, 2012
| Updated: November 21, 2012 4:41pm

I get the most feedback from readers when I write about immigration. Much of it is passionate. Most of it is belligerent to those here illegally. There are two things I hear almost invariably from those who oppose immigration reform, both of which are wrong, and there is one thing that I never hear.

The first thing I always hear is that those here illegally are criminals and have no rights. Of course, criminals actually have rights, as do noncitizens under our legal system. But laying that misstatement of the law aside, it is also inaccurate to say that every one of the 10 million or so living here without a visa has committed a crime. About 40 percent came here on a valid visa that has now expired. Overstaying a visa subjects that person to deportation; however, it is not a crime. About another 20 percent were brought here as children and therefore are not legally responsible for entering the country without a visa.

As for the 40 percent who did break the law by crossing the border without permission, they have only committed a misdemeanor punishable by a small fine. Relatively speaking, it is a far less serious crime than say burglary, which is a felony. Given that our police only solve about 12 percent of the burglaries committed, I have a hard time getting worked up about the government not prosecuting every person who has left some hellhole in Central America and walked hundreds of miles to get into this country to make a better life.

The second thing I almost always hear is that those of us advocating for immigration reform want an "open border" policy with no restrictions on immigration.

To the contrary, we just think that the current system is dumb and ineffective and want a better one.

The principal reason that the current system does not work is because it ignores economic reality. If you have a ready supply of inexpensive labor on one side of the border and a demand for it on the other side of the border, the supply is going to meet the demand no matter what the law says. No man-made law is ever going to repeal the law of supply and demand. And no system that ignores fundamental economic realities can ever be effectively enforced over a long period. The Soviet Union could not enforce a border that ran only 87 miles long across Berlin with unlimited resources and no ethical or humanitarian restraints. What are the chances we are going to close a nearly 2,000-mile border?

The great genius of America is that we are the first country in the world based, not on geography or tribal affiliation or ethnicity, but on principles and ideals. Those ideals - individual liberty, democracy, equality under the law and the guarantee of inalienable rights - are the beacons that have drawn millions to our shores. And it has been the passion of those new immigrant patriots that has kept our national spirit renewed and vital.

My housekeeper became a citizen earlier this year. The day that she voted she brought me her receipt from the electronic voting machine, holding it as if it were her most treasured possession. The idea that she would have passed up the right to vote after waiting so many years to become a citizen never crossed her mind. Yet how many millions of citizens born in this country did not even bother to vote?

That brings me to what I almost never hear from those who have such antipathy for illegal immigrants: any appreciation for how lucky they are to have been born in this country. I do not hear in their voices the sheer joy of being an American citizen that beamed from my housekeeper's face as she proudly showed me her voting receipt that day.

Let's face it, the only real difference between them and us is that we were born here. Those of us who were fortunate enough to be born here were given an incredible birthright. We did not have to earn it as my housekeeper did.

So what I plan to do on this day of thanks giving is to remind myself just how lucky I am to have been born in the most remarkable and unique country in the history of the world and thank the good Lord for that blessing. It is something we should all probably do and do more often than once a year on Thanksgiving.